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CHAPTER III.

ARRIVE AT THE CAPE-VALUABLE ASSISTANCE FROM LOCAL AUTHORITIES A CORPS OF VOLUNTEERS FORMED-GENERAL SIR HARRY SMITH'S DIFFICULTIES-DAMAGED State of STORES AND AMMUNITION-OBLIGED TO INVENT A MINIE BALL HAPPY JACK-THE COMPOSITION OF THE CORPS-REFLECTIONS-COLONEL NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN-HIS PRESENT OF A SWORD AND ITS SUBSEQUENT HISTORY IN TURKEY.

We now proceeded in the same pleasant manner on our way to the Cape, and landed there, after what was then thought a rapid passage of thirtyfive days. We found the news from the seat of war was full of the excitement of actual strife, which was being carried on as fiercely as ever. Governor Darling, who appeared to me rather diffident as to his powers of doing good in the colony, with the instructions he had from the Home Government, was nevertheless very active in his efforts to help me. Through Through his assist

ance I was enabled, within twenty-four hours

of landing, to open an enlisting office. He also stirred up the local authorities and the police to second my efforts. These, and many other kind offices of his, for which I never afterwards had the opportunity of thanking him, I here beg to acknowledge. He is gone now, and I may seem very tardy in expressing my gratitude, but perhaps some of the many who loved him may still listen to my thanks.

Sir Harry Smith, for whom I had letters from the Duke of Wellington, in which, amongst other things, he had kindly said that he believed me to be a real soldier-not only had all the resources of Cape Castle and of the commissariat department placed at my disposal, but offered an extra Government bounty of two pounds, besides the two offered by me, for every man that enlisted. Poor Sir Harry! Although a fine soldier of the olden class, equal to almost any act of gallantry that required no further intuition than that inspired by actual contact with the foe, he failed during this war for the same reasons that rendered Lord Chelmsford equally unsuccessful during the last. The dual character of the local Government, it being at

the same time civil and military, places serious, almost insurmountable, obstacles, in the way of a commander in the field. On emergencies he is required to consult the wishes and give way to the exigencies of both powers. It would require the capacity and the energy of a Clive or a Stratford to combine, direct, and successfully wield such a power.

In the course of a fortnight upwards of fifty men had joined the corps, and everything promised well for our success; but now difficulties as to the clothing and arming occurred. As the bales were landed from the Harbinger, it was found that the leather jackets for the men had become so shrunk, from the extreme heat in the hold of the ship, that there was no possible means of restoring them to their original shape. The cartridges also had been reduced by water to a mealy pulp, stuck over here and there by pieces of oily white paper like suet in a black pudding. It appeared that the idea of the cartridges being of a

highly inflammable nature had

pursued the

Woolwich authorities so far, that, out of consideration for the safety of the ship and its

INVENTING A BALL.

17

precious freight, some considerate souls at the dockyard had filled the tin cases, in which the cartridges were packed, with water, and then carefully soldered them down.

An enterprising clothier, named Taylour, undertook to make other jackets of a similar nature to those spoiled; and a most intelligent mechanic (a Mr Rawbone, gunsmith of Cape Town) engaged to replace the Minie bullet by another equally effective.

It was an absolute necessity to make anothershaped bullet, as the original Minie was useless without the socket of condensed paper, which I could not procure in the colony. Putting our heads together, we invented a bullet in two unequal sizes, slightly dovetailed together in the centre, and which, under the concussion of lighted gunpowder, were driven into one another, and thus expanding, filled up the grooves of the rifle, took the twist, and went spinning through the air on its axis, as true in its flight as the Minie. I was also greatly aided by a Mr Andersen, a Norwegian gentleman, an enthusiastic sportsman and traveller, at the Cape. He took an almost passionate interest in me, my

B

task, and the Minie rifle. From him I gained much useful information concerning bush-life, and the habits, history, and traditions of the Kaffir tribes. He had very little faith in the half-worldly, half - sentimental policy of the British Government towards the Kaffir and the Dutch settler; and my experience afterwards only confirmed the truth of his observations.

I now began to practise the men with their firelocks. As this was almost the only drilling they got, there remained plenty of spare time for drinking - bouts in public - houses, and for them to spend their bounty-money and report on the glorious advantages of being soldiers in prospective.

I had, amongst the men, enlisted a noted character at Cape Town called "Happy Jack." Evans was his real name, a common sailor now, but who had been boatswain in the navy.

He was rarely in barracks, but always to be hailed, as he good-naturedly explained to the guard on duty, in such or such a public-house. It may be readily supposed that men enlisted under the auspices of Happy Jack were not the best of characters; in fact, many of them